Pride and the Knight
by Captain Rikurt
Summary: Niff!AU. Nick is the son of the king and prince of the kingdom, Jeff is his best friend and a future Knight. Follow them as they make new friends, train to be what they were born to do plus some Niff fluffiness along with angst! Rated T... for now!
1. Prologue

******So this I don't like the prologue at all so please do not judge my fic on this crappy chapter, its just kind of there to set up the story! **

**Pride and the Knight**

**Prologue**

"Nicholas!" King Edward shouted from atop of his horse. He had organized a hunting part together with his most trusted knight who also happened to be his best friend too, they were riding through the fields towards the forest they were to hunt in when they realized they were not alone because their sons had followed.

"Yes father?" Nick asked innocently, the five year old boy was stood over another boy and he had a stick to the boys throat,

"Leave poor Jeffery alone" The king said in a scolding tone,

"But father, we were only playing" Nick said, removing the stick from the boys throat and stepping away from him, "I would never want to hurt Jeff, he's my friend, why would I hurt him?"

"You wouldn't want to but you could do by accident" The King said to his son, riding passed both the boys, Nick suddenly shot Jeff a very worried look,

"Im fine" Jeff said, well more like squeaked. It didn't matter that he had been living with Nick and his family in the castle his entire life and that he had known the king since he was a baby, King Edward scared him still.

"It's fine sire, it'll be good traing for Jeffery, if he wants to become Knight like me when he is older" Jeff's father, Sir Peter, said rolling his eyes at the boys antics, he always found them both amusing. Although he was told that is how he and King Edward used to act when they were children, which always made him laugh to think that they were that silly at one point.

"Yes well, you best be going home" The King said, pointing in the direction of the town and castle, "We would actually like to do some hunting"

"But-" Nick tried to protest but was interrupted by his father,

"No buts, just go" The king commanded, and Jeff nodded while dragging Nick off by his wrist so he couldn't protest and get them into any trouble.

King Edward and Sir Peter got back late from their hunting trip, they had managed to shoot a few dear and couple of rabbits, but the rabbits were just for fun and the dear would be given to poor familys who needed the food. When Edward arrived back at his room there was a small glow of a candle flickering light through the door, he entered his room and saw his wife already in bed reading a book.

"Still up?" The King asked, settling down in bed next to his wife,

"Yes, I wanted to make sure you made it back okay" The queen smiled, closing her book,

"How are the children?" The King asked,

"They are fine, Jeffery was asleep on Nicks floor again when I checked on them, I think he is still having nightmares about the monster that is apparently under his bed" The queen said in in a light tone and settled down to sleep but in the morning she would still check to see if Jeff was okay. When Jeff was only a baby, his mother had died of a sickness that had effected a lot of their town, after she died the King offered for Sir Peter to come live in the castle instead of living in out in the town. King Edward claimed that he wanted Peter to come and live in the castle so Nick and Jeff could grow up together and become friends like they had but really he didn't want his friend to have to stay in his house full of memories of his wife. Moving to the castle did turn out well, Nick and Jeff became friends quickly and Sir Peter found things to concentrate on around the castle to take his mind off of his wife also the Queen raised both Nick and Jeff like sons, she didn't care that Jeff wasn't biologically hers she just loved him like a son and that's all that mattered to her.

**Thanks for reading! If you can please leave a review 36**


	2. The Forset

******So this is now the main story! the whole kid thing was just set up for this :) x**

**Chapter 1**

10 years later

Nick sprinted down the corridors of the massive castle he lived in, it was a sunny day outside and Nick sure didn't want to waste the good weather indoors. When he reached his destination in the castle he knocked rapidly over and over on the door and when he decided it was a good enough warning he burst through the door to see his best friend lead on his bed writing something,

"Jeff!" Nick said, trying to announce his entrance into the room,

"Yes, Nick?" Jeff asked, rolling his eyes, his friend was far too active for the morning,

"Can we go riding in the woods today?" Nick asked, as he saw the reluctance on Jeff's face, he sat next to him on his bed and gave him the best puppy eyes he could muster "Please?"

"Ugh, fine" Jeff said, rolling his eyes and smiling at his friends' adorableness, he placed his book on his bed and followed a very enthusiastic Nick out of the door.

* * *

Nick and Jeff were riding on their horses through the fields that almost looked like gold in the sunlight, they were headed towards the wood, it was split in half by a long wide river. One half of the wood had bright green trees that glistened in the sunlight and sun shined down through the branches lighting it well and then there was the other half of the woods, this half was dark and looked like death. If the old tales were correct, then the dark half contained all sorts of dangerous magical creatures that the old Kings had banished from the kingdom. The light half of the wood was safe for human entry and any one could go in it, the only time anyone went in the other half was for knight training, there was a small camp potential knights went to every year, Jeff was in line for that and it worried Nick because sometimes people didn't not return from the woods alive.

"I will be going there soon" Jeff said, nodding towards the dark half of the woods, Nick could tell he was scared. He didn't blame Jeff though, he would be scared too especially since Jeff is not a great swords man or anything to do with fighting, he was smart though.

"I know" Nick replied, he couldn't hide the concern from his voice. Jeff's heart fluttered slightly when he heard the shakiness in Nick's voice at the thought of him being in danger. Jeff was completely and madly in love with Nick, he didn't really understand how or why but all he knew it was true and he had gotten over the denial bit a while ago.

"How about we practice a bit?" Nick suggested,

"What?" Jeff asked, he shook his head slightly to remind himself to stop ogling at Nick and actually pay attention,

"Your sword work?" Nick said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, "You need to work on it if you are going to that camp thing"

"Ugh, fine" Jeff groaned, he hated practicing; he was awful at this whole fighting thing, where as Nick had a natural talent for it.

"Good" Nick said, he jumped down from his horse landing perfectly on both feet, whereas Jeff had to carefully get off his horse so he wouldn't fall. Nick pulled his sword from where it was kept on his horse saddle and Jeff quickly did the same, "I'm just going to show you the basic's since you still can't do that"

"Hey, I'm getting better" Jeff said, feeling slightly offended, he really did try with this kind of stuff because he wanted to make his father proud,

"You are, but your progress is far too slow" Nick said, pointing his sword upwards and getting into the proper stance, Jeff quickly copied. Nick suddenly lunged towards Jeff and out of shock Jeff fell over, his back hit the ground and his long leads kicked out, tripping Nick over who fell on top of him and Jeff thought things could not have gone worse.

"Nick you are going to need to get off me" Jeff said, while Nick just bust out laughing when he finally composed himself he pushed himself up on to his arms so he was hovering just above Jeff,

"Well that went well" Nick said sarcastically, however Jeff couldn't concentrate anything other than the fact that Nicks face was inches away from his and how easy it would be just to kiss Nick, no matter how much he tried to shake those thoughts it didn't work. Jeff just tried to shake it off by laughing too and then Nick finally got off of him to Jeff's great relief,

"Can we just go into the woods?" Jeff asked, he wasn't in the mood for this training anymore, "I'd rather not hurt myself"

"Yeah, okay" Nick said and they both got back on their horses, Jeff taking longer than Nick, which was normal, "Don't you think it's weird how I'm the one that can fight reasonably well and you have all the brains, it's like I should be the knight and you should be the prince"

"Yeah I've noticed that, do you think that annoys our fathers?" Jeff asked, he was always worried that he would disappoint his father,

"I think it does a little but they know I still have lots of time until I am king and you still have that Knight camp to go to" Nick said, "We will be ready for our roles, I promise"

"I hope you are right" Jeff said, heading towards the wood followed by Nick. Jeff took one last look at the dark side of the forest before it disappeared from view, he was so afraid of what would happened when he went into there, he could come back untrained and useless and his father would hate him or even worse he might not come back out at all.

**Thanks for reading! Please review if you can 3**


	3. Not Saving Just Helping

**Not Saving... Just Helping**

******Sorry i haven't updated in forever, I'm not even sure how many people like this or even read it but im gonna try and promise to keep updating regularly if i don't and you actually like this don't be afraid to nag me!**

Nick hated this, he hated the unknown and that's how he had felt that morning as he watched Jeff walk into the castles great hall. That morning all the trainee knights who would be going to the camp in the dark part of the forest where called to the castles great hall where they would have everything explained to them like; what they will need to take with them, what's expected of them and how long they will be there for. So Jeff had gone to that and Nick was getting agitated, Jeff had only been in there 20 minutes but it had left Nick to think about all the horrible creatures in the forest and how unprepared Jeff was! Nick started to pace outside the big double doors that led into the great hall, he did this for at least ten minutes and then got fed up. He wanted to know what was going on.

Nick knew there was only one way you see into the hall but he'd have to be very sneaky and quite. There was a window at the very top of the great hall and all he had to do was climb up a wall and onto the roof to her to that window, this could be very dangerous but nick often did it to spy on his father's formal dinners so he wasn't worried. Nick ran out of the castle and ran straight to the correct wall, there were certain bricks that where pushed out of place that made a great ladder to the roof. Nick grabbed hold of one and hauled himself up so both the feet on stones and both hands were holding on to the something, he started to climb. It took him a good five minutes and a couple of almost falls and he was on the roof and it made him dizzy seeing how far up he was but he shook it off and walked up the roof to the window.

Nick popped open the window which was on hinges and stick his head through the gap. Unfortunately for him there was to many people talking at once to hear anything, then he had an idea. Nick carefully lowered his body in through the window, praying no one looked up, he then started to swing slightly and let go at just the right time to land on one of the beams which ran across the roof of the hall. Nick was quick, agile and had good balance so this all seemed very easy to him, he had always been good at sneaking around and this also helped with his sword fighting. He walked across the beam until he was right over the trainee knights.

Nick spotted Jeff almost immediately which he thought was to do with some special connection they had because they were best friends but then realised Jeff was the only bright blonde kid down there. Nick noticed Jeff looked alone and scared, all he wanted to do was get down there and tell him everything would be okay but he couldn't.

"Shit" he muttered under his breath as he suddenly realised there was no way of getting back through the window because it was to high up and there was no way he could jump down without dying. Nick was stuck and he hit his head on the wooden beam in frustration.

"Everyone listen up" a man bellowed, making Nick jump and the rest of the hall fell silent, Nick recognised the man as Sir Hubert, the knight in charge of the camp. "Now you've all been told what you need to know, I would like you to get into groups of five and then write you names down on the sheet of parchment over there!"

There was a lot of movement in the hall as the boys organised themselves into groups and Nick watched Jeff intently. Jeff at first just stood by the side of the hall but he was then invited into a group of four boys, one kind of chubby looking kid, one small curly haired boy, one massive boy? Man? Nick wasn't and another tall boy. Jeff smiled at them and joined there group, Nick couldn't help but feel relieved that Jeff wouldn't be on his own. As all the boys were writing their names down in a groups on the sheet Sir Hubert told the boys that they would be the groups they would be staying and that once they had written their names down they were dismissed. Nick knew that he had to announce his where about's before everyone left so he could get help.

"EXCUSE ME!" Nick shouted into the hall, this caused everyone to look up, "I'm stuck and I need some assistance".

The whole hall just looked baffled at how he had even got up there, "Okay knights, this of you first task, save the prince" Sir Hubert announced to the group of boys still looking up at Nick,

"I don't need saving, I just need help" Nick said but to quite for anyone else to hear.

Nick at the knights who were all planning together except Jeff who was just leaning against one the of the tables smirking at Nick, his expression saying so much about what he thought of Nick.

"Oh shut it" Nick mouthed down to Jeff who laughed and walked out of the hall, calling the rest of his group along with him, 'Charming' Nick thought 'Doesn't even want to help his best friend'. But 10 minutes later and a couple of failed attempts from the other knights to get Nick down, he was still stuck on that damn beam.

"Nick!" Come one shouted from above him? Nick was confused but looked in the direction the shout had come from.

"So you didn't abandon me" Nick smiled as he saw Jeff looking in through the window Nick had come through in the first place,

"Of course not, I would never do that" Jeff said with mock disgust, "I'm not that bad of a friend, soon to be knight and royal guard"

Nick laughed at his Jeff's comment as he meant it as a joke but inside he felt regret, knowing that he would soon rule over his best friend and there would no longer be the feeling of mutual respect. "Alright, just get me out of here" Nick said walking along the beam until he was as close to the window as he could get. Jeff then lowered some rope in and swung it towards Nick who grabbed it.

"Tie yourself onto the rope" Jeff said and Nick did just that,

"But you won't be able to take my weight" Nick said back, after all Jeff was only thin with barely any muscle to even bother trying to lift another person,

"It's okay" Jeff said, "Sebastian is holding onto the rope with me and John is holding the rope at the bottom so don't worry, we've got you".

As Jeff said this another boys head popped through the window,

"Hi, I'm Sebastian" Sebastian said, "You must be Prince Nicholas, it's an honour to meet you"

"You too, thank you for helping" Nick said politely, even though he was getting frustrated at being stuck on the stupid beam,

"I hope this works" Jeff shouted to down to someone on the ground, "Okay, Nick we're going to pull you up in, three… two… one" as Jeff reached one Nick started to hover just above the beam, so he tightly shut his eyes and prayed he would not fall to his untimely death. When he realised he had reached the window opening again he opened his eyes and grabbed not the sides, so just his head and arms where sticking out of the gap, as he tried to pull himself up he felt two hands on both his shoulders and he was hoisted to his feet on the roof.

"Thanks" Nick said nodding at both Sebastian and Jeff,

"No need to thank us sir, it's our duty" Sebastian said and bowed slightly, Jeff quickly doing the same thing. Which made Nick frown and what to make Jeff stand up completely straight again and say something like "Your welcome" or make a sarcastic comment. They all managed to get down safely from the castle roof, when they were down each member of Jeff's team introduced themselves, the small chubby-ish boy was Trent, the curly haired boy was Blaine, the massive, and by massive I mean very tall and musclely, boy or man was Jon and the other was Sebastian.


	4. Waiting

**Oh just a boring filler chapter! Meh, review or something? That would be nice.**

**Waiting**

Fumbling Nick tried to do up the fastenings on his royal robes, he felt foolish wearing the billowing cape but it was necessary and major events. Being the future King meant he had to look the part, it wasn't the robes that were making him shake, and it was the event he was attending. Nick had been dreading it for weeks. It was the ceremony where the future Knights to be were bid farewell by most of the town folk and of course they had to have the blessing of the King. Since the day they had saved... No... Helped Nick down from the roof all the Knights had 3 weeks to prepare for Knight training. Nick had done as best he could to explain the basics of sword fighting to Jeff, but unfortunately none of it seemed to have sunk in. As he thought of Jeff, his hands shook even more. Nick did not want to say good bye to his best friend, especially knowing that he would not see him for a whole year.

A year. That made Nick feel sick, what was he supposed to do for a year? He would be so bored. Well, Nick knew what he was supposed to do, learn the ways of a king, get to know the people, find a suitable wife, blah, blah, blah. Nick wanted none of this, in face he would have loved to go to Knight training with Jeff; he loved the idea of knowing how to fight like a proper Knight. But no, he was to be King. Nick sighed and looked at himself in the mirror, his brown hair brushed down enough to look tidy and he was wearing his best shirt with a royal blue cape he had received for his birthday. Sighing, again, Nick trudged out of his bed room and down through the castle until he reached the massive entrance of the castle. There stood his mother and father plus a lot of servants, see the future knights would be lined up just outside the castle doors at the bottom of the steps and Nick, his mother and his father will walk out to wish them well before the leave. It will be the last time Nick will see Jeff for a year.

"Nick!" The king announced, placing a hand on his sons shoulder, "You ready to bid the Knights farewell"

"No" Nick mumbled, his father simply patted his shoulder, while his mother rushed over to whisper encouraging words to him. Neither of them knew why he was so sad. Neither of them understood he could not say good bye to his best friend so easily. But as they were due to go out, Nick pulled himself together and stood proudly next to his mother and father as they prepared to enter out, in front of the crowd full of hundreds of people.

On the other side of the door Jeff was, well to put it bluntly, shitting himself. He was in lined up with the other Knights, who were all facing the grand wooden doors that led into the castle. Jeff knew that the King, Queen and Nick, no the Prince, he should call Nick; Prince or Sir now, not Nick, well they would be coming out to greet and bid them farewell at any minute. Jeff really hoped that Nick had remembered what he said about acting like they weren't friends, he asked Nick to do that because he didn't want any of the other Knights to treat him differently, well he will already be treated differently because he is the son of the Kings knight but he didn't need being the Prince's best friend added to it. Sebastian knew from when they had saved Nick from the roof but had promised not to tell anyone and Nick had understood and said he would treat him like any of the other knights when around people.

The double doors leading into the castle suddenly opened and Jeff took a sharp intake of breathe, everything fell silent all the knights and the crowd, of towns people, behind them.

**Pretty please review?**


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